hydrogen bonding

… orbital and to consider a lone pair of electrons on B as occupying a B orbital. When the three atoms are aligned, these three orbitals can form three molecular orbitals: one bonding, one largely nonbonding, and one antibonding. There are four electrons to accommodate (two from the original A―H bond…

Known as the lone-pair orbitals, these are the keys to water’s peculiar behaviour, in that they attract the hydrogen nuclei of adjacent water molecules to form what are called hydrogen bonds. These bonds are not especially strong, but, because they orient the water molecules into a specific configuration,…